Hasta La Gadget!

Piles of pastel macarons at Laduree. The steep steps of Montmartre. Masterworks at the Louvre. A long stroll along the Seine.

Paris is a city that many travelers pine for, dream about, plan a once-in-a-lifetime trip to. But with so much love comes plenty of high prices. In fact, Paris is one of the most expensive European cities to fly to: Hopper found that the average airfare to the City of Light comes in at just under $1,000 round trip.

Lucky for you, Hopper found some easy ways to save money while planning a trip to Paris. From buying the right flight to staying in the right place, you can save some serious euro just by being smart.

Compare Arrival Airports

Charles de Gaulle is the main airport for Paris arrivals (and, since it’s the eighth busiest airport in the world, it’s the arrival and departure point for many visitors to Europe). However, it may not actually be the cheapest airport for you to fly into. Compare the cost of flights from your departure airport to both Charles de Gaulle and Orly, Paris’ secondary airport. You may find surprising savings. (The Hopper app can also recommend which of the two airports is cheaper for your specific route. We’re nice like that.)

Don’t Skip Budget Airlines

When looking for flights to Paris, feel free to skip the legacy airlines unless you find a great deal. At Hopper, we’ve consistently found the best savings on flights from the United States to Paris with airlines like WOW and XL Airways France. On the latter, we found flights from New York City to Paris from just $537 this fall.

Also consider Turkish Airlines: Our research uncovered flights from Boston to Paris from $712. They come with a free stopover in Istanbul and are certainly longer than Air France’s non-stop option — but they’re also at least $400 cheaper. Turkish Airlines is gaining steam as a surprisingly low-cost carrier with plenty of amenities, from luxe airport lounges to in-flight Turkish delight.

Keep Track of Prices

You could spend all day, every day, checking flight prices to Paris, waiting with baited breath for that flight price to drop. You could compare multiple sites across browsers and keep an elaborate spreadsheet of price trends. Or you could set up a fare alert and we’ll do it for you. Flight prices nearly always increase in the last few weeks as your departure date approaches. So it’s important to keep track of prices and know exactly when you’re getting a good deal. Also know the average flight price from your departure airport; the national average for a flight from the U.S. to France is $996, but depending on your location, it could be much higher or lower.

Find Alternative Accommodations

While you’re likely to spend the biggest portion of your budget on your flight to Paris, accommodations can be heart-stoppingly expensive. (A moderate three-star hotel can be as pricy as $389 per night.) So don’t overlook alternative accommodation options. Here are some favorites:

Airbnb seems to be the last name in vacation rentals, and its young, hip brand is perfect for Paris, where the average rental rate for an entire home is a wonderfully cheap $108. Another vacation-rental option is long-time favorite HomeAway, which has a roster of some 7,000 properties in and around Paris.

Other options include a bed and breakfast (we recommend BedandBreakfast.com, which lists 68 B&Bs and inns in the metro area) or, surprisingly, hostels. No longer the smelly, smoky college-student-on-spring-break hangouts, you can find decent properties with amazing prices. Check them out on HostelWorld.

Buy a City or Museum Pass

Finally, if sightseeing is your number-one goal in Paris, look into the Paris Pass. While it doesn’t include entry to the Eiffel Tower, it does include admission to 60 attractions and tours. See the Louvre, Musee d’Orsay, Centre Pompidou, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral, and even Versailles nearby. Two-day pass prices start at about $138 for adults and $47.50 for children, which offers a great savings opportunity if you plan to hit up a handful of sights.

This article originally appeared on Hopper.com, the app that tracks and predicts airfare to get you the cheapest flights.

Liked this article? Here’s some more expert advice from the team at Hopper:

• The Cheapest European Countries to Fly to from the U.S.
• How Much Does a Flight to Europe Cost From My State?
• 5 Ways to Save on Summer Flights
• Seriously? Most Airlines Have a 24-Hour Grace Period with Penalty-Free Cancellations

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Time is of the essence to appeal an unappealing financial aid offer. Because few families now play the multiple deposit game to keep their options open past May 1st, a wealth of financial aid offered will now revert back to the coffers of an untold number of colleges where an untold number of students will not be attending!

Additionally, surely not every accepted student who received a financial aid package with $1,000’s in need-based scholarships, grants, subsidized loans, and/or Federal Work-Study awards will be attending as well. For those students who lost out on a college scholarship essay, and especially those students who have substantial unmet need, you are advised to contact the Financial Aid Administrator (head financial aid officer) or whomever send out the award letter to appeal it. You can appeal 1 offer; you can negotiate multiple offers. More on that in another post.

It certainly makes perfect sense, because millions of dollars in financial aid offered at 100s of schools will not be realized since many of those who received it simply won’t be attending that school. And it gets even better as time goes on, because as each semester ends, a number of students who got beaucoup bucks either drop out, flunk out, transfer, or lose their need based and/or merit scholarships due to academic deficiencies, and the number increases!

What follows is the actual text of a letter I recently wrote and the student signed, which prompted the college to send the family their Reevaluation Form which I reviewed and is now in process:

Stonehill College
Office of Financial Aid
Attn: Eileen O’leary, Director of Student Financial Assistance
320 Washington St.
Easton, MA 02357

Dear Director O’leary:

It is my sincere desire to enroll in the fall, and I wish to thank you for my Stonehill Presidential Scholarship! However, as a maximum Pell recipient, I would appreciate the same in an SEOG, and as the responsibility to pay for my education rests solely upon my broad shoulders, a $3,500 – $4,000 Federal Work-Study would be greatly appreciated as well. Thanking you in advance for coming to my aid.

Gratefully,

Xxx
123456 – Student ID#

Here are some of my criteria for a student’s appeal letter, so use whatever fits:

• Be sure to send it Priority Mail with Signature confirmation; Express Mail is not recommended
• Since there are now many students who received various types of need-based and merit aid who won’t be attending, more will obviously be available
• There will surely be additional aid available for the 2nd semester, etc.
• Your parents 2015 income and/or assets will be substantially less than in 2014
• The death of a parent, sibling, divorce, job loss, business slowdown, or excessive health bills caused a financial crisis
• Every Pell Grant recipient qualifies for a Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG) up to $4,000 each year
• Any Federal Work-Study award less than $4,500 should be appealed
• Ask for a Perkins Loan, $5,500 max, ($0 interest for 4 years 9 months) if one isn’t offered
• Students whose families have an adjusted gross income of $175,000 or less can qualify for a subsidized Stafford Loan ($0 interest for 4 years 6 months)
• Students from the South attending northern schools should request a winter clothing allowance, but don’t specify the amount
• Research the school’s travel allowance allocation, and if it’s unrealistic, simply ask for a reasonable increase
• If the student will be traveling cross country, politely ask for something that makes sense, but whatever you’re asking for, don’t ask for “money”, ask for help
• If the student received a state specific scholarship, ask for something their state offers, but of lesser value or as a last resort, a modest “credit at the bookstore.”

My prescription for success entails having the student write a compelling letter, but only to the individual who signed/sent the award letter. If the sender isn’t named, seek out the Financial Aid Administrator or the Director and mail it to his/her attention. Avoid emails, as they’re too impersonal, unless that’s the only way to contact someone.

Once an appeal letter has been sent, and a phone call asking to speak with the student is received, be sure to ask, “Who’s calling?” If it’s someone from the college, the student is NOT there, so ask to take a message! This is of the utmost importance, as it’s too easy for the caller to simply say, “We received an appeal letter, but unfortunately no additional aid is available. Is there anything else he/she was interested in?” I know of several instances when a call was received on a Saturday night! They win, you lose!

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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